The St. Thomas’ Preparatory School prize giving was held last Friday, with leading President’s Counsel K. Kanag-Iswaran gracing the occassion as chief guest. Addressing students, staff members and parents, Kanag-Iswaran —an alumnus of Jaffna Central College and the University of London— stressed the importance of discipline and core values in students.

“Have you wondered or asked yourself what would happen if one day, the sun decides it will not rise in the morning? One day it decides it will not set in the evening?” Kanag-Iswaran asked. “…you know the sun will never do it. Why not? Because it is disciplined. Yes my friends, because discipline is the first law of nature.”

St. Thomas’ Preparatory School was founded by the late William Thomas Keble in 1938. At last year’s Ordinary Level examinations, 73 percent of candidates received ‘A’ in English and 48 percent received ‘A’ in Mathematics. Awards made at the ceremony included, special prizes such as the ‘Golden Jubilee Scholarship’ and the ‘J.E.M Obeysekera Memorial Prize’ for best results at the GCE O/L exam in December 2012.

In his speech, the chief guest explained that changing times have caused society to alter radically, asking students to keep in mind the importance of the two “self evident” truths —discipline and core values. “Today’s influences on impressionable minds are at most times frightening. Values have changed. Value systems have been altered… even greater challenges confront you… the youth of today, exposed as you are to irrationality, unethical public conduct, questionable role models and the enticement of the information highway with easy access to indiscriminate and injurious material,” Kanag-Iswaran pointed out.

Discussing the significance of core values, he said students should look to their school to shape their core values early in life. He went on to identify the essential core values of security, tradition, benevolence and universalism. Kanag-Iswaran, who has been appointed a Commissioner of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka, also called on students to recognise and develop their contribution to the world.
“Every single one of you has something to offer. Recognise it and develop it. Only you can write your destiny,” he advised.

The primary objective of a successful school should be to produce individuals who are disciplined, balanced in their outlook to life and who are imbued with correct and proper values, noted St. Thomas’s Preparatory School Headmaster N.Y. Casie Chetty.

He made the observation in the Headmaster’s report for 2012, at the annual Prize-giving of the school held on Friday. The school marked its 75th Anniversary, since it was founded by the late William Thomas Kebie, MA, (Oxon) on May 12, 1938. “This is a critical element in a heterogeneous society such as ours in Sri Lanka, where there is diversity and pluralism.

If our nation is to progress and grow as a united and unified entity, it is indeed the need of our country, that its citizenry must not be bigoted, parochial or divisive in its attitude and thinking”, he said. “It is in such a context that an effective secondary school can play a pivotal role in enabling the fashioning of correct ideas and proper values”, he added. “I am not for a moment devaluing the role of a school in pursuing such laudable objectives as the pursuit of academic excellence, the creation and engendering of a culture of learning, the fostering of the goal of achieving excellence in the field of sport, drama, dance, music etc’, Mr Casie Chetty said.

“All these manifold areas must be sustained and nourished in order to develop the total personality of the young student that is simply not an issue. What is important, in addition to all the areas just referred to by me, is to ensure that the student passing through our school, into adult life, should be endowed in simple measure with those qualities and attributes of heart and mind which would reflect compassion, tolerance, respect for others with different views and ideas, coupled with magnanimity and love”.

“It is indeed meet that there ought to be sober reflection and introspection, especially when a school marks a milestone in a jubilee year. I can, with confidence, assert that our school has not failed our nation, as we continue the challenging task of nurturing, training and equipping our students to face the multitudinous demands which they would be confronted with a society, which has been radically transformed from its relatively halcyon past. In this noble, though arduous task of nation building, our school has, throughout this enterprise, been fortified and inspired by the motto of our school, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd”.